This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s partnership with NOTUS, a nonpartisan news organization that covers government and politics with the fresh eyes of early career journalists and the expertise of veteran reporters.
Congress wanted the nation’s 250th birthday to unite America in celebrating its founding principles, common bonds and democratic institutions that have made the country so unique. It passed bipartisan legislation a decade ago creating a commission to support events in the capital and around the country to mark the occasion.
Instead, the semiquincentennial events in Washington, D.C., have become intensely partisan, with President Donald Trump essentially taking over as master of ceremonies. The president and his administration have spurned congressional efforts to celebrate the anniversary in favor of their own high-profile events, such as the UFC match at the White House and campaign-style rallies on the National Mall, culminating with one on July Fourth that Trump has dubbed “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all.”
“I will be speaking at approximately 9 P.M., preceding the Fireworks which again, like the Airshow, will be approximately ten times larger than any Fireworks in the History of our Country. So, if you like Airplanes and Fireworks and President Trump, be there!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
A handful of Democratic-led states are openly boycotting Trump’s 16-day Great American State Fair, progressive activists are organizing competing events in D.C., and some Washingtonians are skipping the traditionally bipartisan July 4 events on the National Mall altogether.
“I think that’s sad,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told NOTUS.
“If the celebration of the miracle of democracy that comes from the founding of this nation becomes partisan, shame on us,” lamented Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina).
Trump this week kicked off 250th celebrations with a campaign-sounding speech on the National Mall in which he touted anti-transgender policies, praised immigration agents implementing his deportation push, and promoted a tentative peace deal with Iran. The fair is being put on by Freedom 250, the Trump-backed group funded in part with private donations, which has overtaken the bipartisan America250 commission created by Congress in 2016. The bipartisan commission told Congress earlier this year it has a $100 million funding shortfall, while Freedom 250 received $68 million in taxpayer funds this year.
“He can’t help himself – especially with things that don’t involve him, don’t praise him, don’t highlight him – President Trump couldn’t help but try making America’s 250th birthday all about himself,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) said during a Senate hearing this week.
Padilla further questioned how much taxpayer money had been spent on Freedom 250, as opposed to America250, and whether any conflicts of interest existed with funneling private donations to Trump’s favored group. The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions in taxpayer funds from America250 while simultaneously directing money toward Freedom 250, as NOTUS first reported.
“Which donors have supported those efforts, let alone what requests might have been made alongside those contributions? How much of this has been pay-to-play or quid pro quo?” Padilla asked.
Speaking ahead of Trump at the state fair event last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized the music artists who pulled out of performing at the event shortly after the lineup was announced last month due to its partisan nature.
“We have to give a big round of applause for our military band and singers. Way better than those libtards that canceled on us,” Duffy said, using a derogatory word for liberals.
Congressional Democrats who serve on the bipartisan America 250 commission blamed Trump for undermining bipartisan efforts aimed at commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Many of them said they still intended to celebrate the anniversary, just in their own states.
“I remember the 200th [anniversary] in 1976 and how the whole country celebrated together, and it’s unfortunate that it seems to be turning into a more partisan event,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), a member of the commission, told NOTUS.
“A campaign rally is not celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country,” she said. “I expect to attend something in New Hampshire for the 250th, and I think a lot of people will be attending events in their home states.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told NOTUS it’s an important time for the country. “My hope is that everybody is going to be doing something that stops and recognizes the just the special nature of what it means to be a citizen of the United States, and to celebrate that in your own way.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), said that the 250th anniversary “shouldn’t be partisan,” and told NOTUS he’s interested in making a “public inquiry” into what is happening with the appropriated funds. In July last year, Congress appropriated $150 million for the 250th celebration.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) sent the Department of the Interior a letter in March asking why Freedom 250 was receiving taxpayer money. A Schiff spokesperson told NOTUS the letter has not received a response.
Rosie Rios, the chair of the America250 commission, refused to answer NOTUS’ questions on whether the organization had received the tens of millions of dollars it’s supposed to get from the administration. Instead, Rios told NOTUS “we continue to be in constant communication” with the administration.
“The private sector has been very, very, very generous. We have great partnerships, we have great sponsorships,” Rios said.
Rios downplayed concerns that the 250th anniversary celebrations had become too partisan, telling NOTUS, “We cannot be all things to all Americans, but we have something for every American.”
The America250 commission, she said, has “remained focused on implementing our values-based programming, regardless of any other organization and their own planning activities, and that’s where we’ve been successful.”
The Republican members on the congressional America250 commission downplayed the rift between the competing groups, insisting that Trump isn’t favoring one over the other.
“He’s not trying to sabotage the America250,” Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Alabama) told NOTUS. He acknowledged that there are people in the America250 commission who do not “embrace” what Freedom 250 is doing, “but that’s OK.”
“There’s plenty of room for everybody and everything,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. “I don’t think the nation’s birthday needs to be a partisan event. I think July 4 should be a unifying event.”
That hasn’t assuaged critics of Trump’s approach to the celebrations. Organizers with the progressive group Next250, for example, are planning “a broader, more inclusive vision for how the country approaches its 250th anniversary,” including events around the country designed as a response to “an increasingly narrow and exclusionary narrative from the MAGA regime. A separate group, We The People 250, is also planning a D.C. march on July 4 “against authoritarianism and political violence.”
But Murkowski, at least, is holding out hope that bipartisanship will prevail.
“We’re already divided enough as a country, and I think this needs to be the one time where we all just say, isn’t it amazing that we’ve made it this far?” she said.